Quotes from Richard Hamming

Good scientists will fight the system rather than learn to work with the system.

The purpose of computation is insight, not numbers.

What you learn from others you can use to follow. What you learn for yourself you can use to lead.

When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go. So that is another reason why you find that when you get early recognition it seems to sterilize you.

Beware of finding what you're looking for. [ A favorite aphorism he often used .]

True greatness is when your name is like ampere , watt , and fourier —when it's spelled with a lower case letter.

I need to discuss science vs. engineering. Put glibly: In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it. In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it.

If you don't work on important problems, it's not likely that you'll do important work.

Most people like to believe something is or is not true. Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well. They believe the theory enough to go ahead; they doubt it enough to notice the errors and faults so they can step forward and create the new replacement theory. If you believe too much you'll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too much you won't get started. It requires a lovely balance.

Vicarious learning from the experiences of others saves making errors yourself, but I regard the study of successes as being basically more important than the study of failures. There are so many ways of being wrong and so few of being right, studying successes is more efficient.

It is not easy to become an educated person.

Moral: to the extent you can choose, work on problems you think will be important.

The applications of knowledge, especially mathematics, reveal the unity of all knowledge. In a new situation almost anything and everything you ever learned might be applicable, and the artificial divisions seem to vanish.

is a thin line between having enough self-confidence and being overconfident. I suppose the difference is whether you succeed or fail; when you win you are strong-willed, and when you lose you are stubborn!

While the problem of ai can be viewed as, "Which of all the things humans do can machines also do?," I would prefer to ask the question in another form: "Of all of life's burdens, which are those machines can relieve, or significantly ease, for us?

In closing I want to remind you yet again of Pasteur's remark, "Luck favors the prepared mind." Yes, it is a matter of luck just what you do; it is much less luck you will do something if you prepare yourself to succeed. "Creativity" is just another name for the great successes which make a difference in history.

The reason this happens so often is the creators have to fight through so many dark difficulties, and wade through so much misunderstanding and confusion, they cannot see the light as others can, now the door is open and the path made easy. Please remember, the inventor often has a very limited view of what he invented, and some others (you?) can see much more.

This is a book about thinking. One cannot talk about thinking in the abstract, at least not usefully. But one can talk about thinking about digital filters, and by studying how great scientists thought about digital filters, one learns, however gradually, to think like a great scientist.

Assuming you rise to the top, please remember: what made you great may not be appropriate for the next generation.

Almost all professionals are slow to use their own expertise for their own work.

the current situation being a toss-up as to what you want to believe. Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal. Hence you will find that often what you believe is what you want to believe, rather than being the result of careful thinking.

When something is claimed to be new, do not be too hasty to think it is just the past slightly improved - it might be a great opportunity for you to do significant things. But again it may be nothing new.

The most dangerous thought you can have as a creative person is to think you know what you're doing.

When you know something cannot be done, also remember the essential reason why, so later, when the circumstances have changed, you will not say 'It can't be done.